Illness and other Absence

Contact telephone numbers

It is vital that we hold an emergency contact telephone number, either home, a neighbour or your place of work, so that we are quickly able to contact you if your child becomes ill or has an accident at school. Please remember the importance of updating this if you should change your number or place of work.

Emergency consent form

On your child’s starting school you will be requested to complete and sign a form enabling us to permit medical treatment in the unlikely event of an emergency or accident. This is purely an additional safety measure - we will always seek to contact you immediately should any problem arise.

Illness

In the case of stomach upsets, e.g. vomiting or diarrhoea, please keep your child at home until you are sure that these symptoms have ceased. We ask you to keep a child away from school for 48 hours after vomiting has ceased as a precaution against spreading a ‘tummy bug’. Such ‘bugs’ can affect staff as well as other pupils/families and cause widespread difficulties throughout the school. Similarly, with known infectious illnesses, it is important that your child should not return to school until after the infectious period is over - or you are unsure about this, your health visitor or doctor will be happy to advise. In cases of German Measles, or “Slapped Cheek” please inform the school immediately so that we can put up notices, so as to help pregnant women be aware that these potentially hazardous germs are ‘around’.

Informing school in the case of absence

When your child returns to school after any absence it is essential to send a note or speak with the class teacher in person. If the absence is likely to be longer than one or two days, please telephone the school. This information is required to be recorded in the class register. The Department of Education require schools to record all unauthorised pupil absences and publish this annually. Our absence information is included in this prospectus.

Similarly, if you have arranged a dental or medical appointment for your child during school time, could you please inform the teacher or the school secretary in advance.

It is important that families of school aged children take any holidays during school vacations. If this proves impossible to comply with, and there is an important reason for your child to be absent during term time, there is a form obtainable from the school office which is required to be completed requesting the period of absence. We urge families to avoid term time leave unless absolutely necessary. It is particularly important that children in year two should avoid being away from school during May when Statutory Assessments are being undertaken. (National tests and tasks known as SATs)

We cannot allow a child to go out of school during the school day unless they are collected by their parent or another adult with the permission of the parent. If you do need to take your child out of school during the day please could you inform a member of our admin team so that the class register may be amended, and the checklist for pupils leaving/arriving during the day can be signed. This is a safety procedure to ensure we know exactly which pupils are on the premises.

Medicines

Apart from asthma treatments we would prefer not to administer any medicines in school. We wish to take every precaution to ensure that children do not have access to medicines brought into school with the risk of an over-dose being taken accidentally.

If it does become necessary for your child to take medicine and your doctor has said that your child is fit to attend school, then please discuss the matter with your class’s attached teaching assistant. We have a medicines record to note treatment and dosage which you will be required to sign. Medicines are stored securely away from teaching areas.

Under no circumstances must any medicine be left in a classroom or in a sandwich box.